


To Err is Human

by pterawaters



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Break Up, F/F, Getting Together, M/M, Making Out, Party Games, Post-Season/Series 03, Sexuality Crisis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:55:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27109858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: Of all the things Steve expected Nancy to say when she came into his workplace, Jonathan breaking up with her wasn't one of them. Determined to get to the bottom of what happened, Steve drives overnight to go knock some sense into Jonathan. His mission isn't exactly successful.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington, Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington, past Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler - Relationship
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43
Collections: Good Intentions: Abandoned and Unfinished WIPs





	To Err is Human

**Author's Note:**

> ***Unfinished fic!!****
> 
> Okay, so I started writing this last December, and got stuck in the middle. I probably won't finish it, unless you guys suggest something that inspires me. The original intent for this fic was to fill [this prompt](https://lacrymosadiesilla.tumblr.com/post/189574866697/hi-my-name-is-nancy-and-this-is-my-boyfriend), so a Stoncy and Ronance endgame.

It was a Tuesday night in December when Nancy came into the video store, her eyes red-rimmed, and asked Steve, “Can I talk to you?”

Steve shared a worried look with Robin, who gave him a little nod. 

“Yeah,” Steve said, getting out from behind the desk. “Yeah, sure. C’mon. Let’s go to the break room in the back.”

Steve led her into the Employees only section of the store, sat her down at the tiny lunch table and poured her a paper cup of water from the cooler, just for good measure. 

There was only one chair at the lunch table, so Steve leaned against the wall opposite from Nancy. “What’s going on?”

Nancy sniffled a little, and said, “Sorry. I just don’t… have any other friends.”

Nancy thought of Steve as a friend? His heart warmed at the thought, but it was a bittersweet feeling. Still, she was being so vulnerable and looked lost, he couldn’t fault her for needing someone, even if that someone was him. He kneeled down on the linoleum floor, setting his arms on the table, and it was almost like he was sitting with her. “C’mon, Nance. What is it that you need to talk about? You can tell me.”

She nodded, and then said (with a tiny bit of venom in her voice), “Jonathan broke up with me.”

“What?” Steve cried, with a surprised laugh. “Why the hell would he do that?”

“He said the long distance is too hard,” she muttered. “That it’s too painful, and he can’t take it anymore.”

“He’s an idiot,” Steve insisted. “He’s a fucking goddamn idiot. Being broken up hurts way more than being apart. I bet he calls you tomorrow, begging you to take him back.”

“You–” she gave him a little bit of a sad smile. “You sound like you know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, I might,” he put his hand out on the table, offering it to her as an olive branch. She didn’t hesitate before setting her hand in his and squeezing. 

“I’m sorry about everything,” she told him. “I should have handled all of that better. I wasn’t…” She shook her head. “I was an asshole to you, and I’m sorry.”

Steve gave her a slight smile. “This just dawning on you now that you’ve been dumped?”

Nancy laughed and squeezed Steve’s hand. “No! I knew it at the time. I was just too proud to apologize back then. Apologize properly, anyway.”

“Apology accepted,” he told her. “Look, I’m working until late tonight and tomorrow night, but maybe Thursday, if Jonathan hasn’t come to his senses yet, we could hang out? Binge on ice cream and watch stupid movies? I’ve got, like, a million of them.”

Nancy looked a little hesitant. 

“Just as friends,” he assured her. “I’ll even bring Robin.”

“You’ll bring your new girlfriend to hang out with your ex-girlfriend?” Nancy scoffed. “I’m sure that’ll–”

“No, Nancy. Robin’s not my girlfriend. She’s, like, my best friend, you know? And since you’re low on friends at the moment, I’m totally willing to share mine. I bet you’ll like her. She’s a pretty big nerd.”

Nancy laughed. Then she nodded. “Yeah, sure. Okay. Thursday.”

“You gonna be okay tonight?” he asked, squeezing her hand one last time before letting go.

“Yeah,” she said, drawing in on herself a little, but also lifting up her chin. “Yeah. I’ll be okay.”

After Nancy left, Robin started to ask Steve what was up, but he held up a finger and picked up the phone. He dialed, and when Dustin picked up and said, “Hello,” Steve said, “It’s me. Hey, do you have Will and Jonathan’s new address?”

“Yeah, why?” Dustin asked, skeptical as always. 

“I just,” need to go commit a murder, Steve didn’t say. Looking over at Robin, he had an idea. “Robin and I are thinking about going on a road trip. I just thought Will might like a post card.”

“Oh, cool!” Dustin replied. “Will you send me one, too?”

“Of course!”

After he had the address written down, Steve put it in his pocket and said to Robin, “I’m suddenly feeling very ill. Feverish. I think I might need to go home.”

“Where are you really going?” Robin asked with a little grin. 

“Jonathan broke up with Nancy, which means I have to go beat some sense into him.”

Robin rolled her eyes. “You don’t _have_ to.”

“Nah, I’m gonna,” Steve insisted. He gave Robin a quick hug, before saying, “Oh! Movies with Nancy on Thursday. Pizza’s on me.”

“I could have had plans,” Robin insisted, but she laughed when Steve raised his eyebrows at her. 

“We both know you didn’t.”

“Get out of here, Harrington. Don’t let him beat you up again!”

“I won’t!”

~*~

It was a hell of a long drive to Buffalo, and Steve ended up having to pull over at a rest stop and sleep for a few hours (it was damn cold) before making the rest of the drive. When he pulled up outside the house, it was mid-morning, and Jonathan’s car was parked on the street out front. 

Steve figured it was 50-50 odds that Jonathan was home on a school day, or that his car had died and he’d taken the bus or something. Those were pretty good odds, so Steve went up to the house and rang the doorbell.

No one answered at first, but Steve didn’t drive through the night just to be ignored, so he rang the doorbell a bunch more times, until the door opened and Jonathan cried, “What?”

He looked somehow worse than Nancy had the night before, his eyes all red with dark circles under them, and his cheeks blotchy. His eyes widened with surprise when he realized it was Steve standing on his front porch. 

Steve used that surprise to his advantage, pushing past Jonathan to get into the house, saying, “You are such a goddamn idiot, do you know that? A fucking moron!”

Jonathan sighed and closed the front door. “Nancy told you.”

“Yeah,” Steve said, crossing his arms and glaring at Jonathan. “You have to fucking take it back right now. Un-break-up with her. Today.”

Jonathan crossed his arms too. “No.”

“No? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“It’s for the best,” Jonathan insisted, wandering out of the foyer and back into the house.

“Why?” Steve asked, following him. “Because long distance is too hard? I would date Nancy from the fucking _moon_ if she let me!”

Jonathan rolled his eyes and pulled a glass out of the cupboard. “Well, now’s your chance,” he said, filling the glass with tap water. He handed it to Steve. 

Steve took the glass, because he really was thirsty, actually, and drank half of it before he got back to yelling. “No, I do not have a fucking chance with Nancy. She dumped me over a year ago. She loves _you_.”

Muttering darkly, Jonathan said, “She deserves better than me.”

Setting the glass down, Steve asked, “What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean? What did you do?”

“Nothing!” Jonathan insisted. His expression turned vulnerable when he added, “Yet.”

“Yet?” Steve asked, but then he got it. “Oh. You met someone.”

Jonathan dropped down into one of the kitchen chairs and groaned. “Kind of,” he said. “I wanted to do the right thing by Nancy. Let her go before I did something stupid.”

“Well,” Steve said, sitting down at one of the other chairs. “I guess that makes sense. Though, I don’t know _how_ you’re looking at someone else. It took me, like, almost a year to start _considering_ being attracted to a girl other than Nancy.”

“It’s not like I could help it,” Jonathan said.

Steve supposed he could understand. “So, like, is this new girl really hot or something? Does she even like you back?”

“It’s not…” Jonathan shook his head and then hid his face in his hands. His ears turned red. “I’m not talking about this with you.”

“Made a bunch of friends here, have you?” Steve asked, kicking Jonathan’s shin a little bit. “Someone else you can talk to about why you’re throwing away the best thing that’s ever happened to you?”

Jonathan groaned and kicked Steve back with his bare foot, still not uncovering his face. Eventually, he admitted, “I’ve been having dreams. About someone else.”

“Oh,” Steve replied, sitting back in his chair. Gently, so he wouldn’t disturb whatever had finally got Jonathan talking, Steve asked, “Like sex dreams?”

Jonathan nodded. 

“Sex dreams don’t mean anything!” Steve insisted. “They’re just dreams! And seriously, if you go from banging on the regular to _no banging_ , they’re gonna happen. Just rub one out like the rest of us and call your fucking girlfriend, dipshit!”

Uncovering his face and looking at Steve with complete shock and embarrassment, Jonathan insisted, “They’re not…” He made a frustrated noise and then cried, “They’re about a guy, Steve! I think I’m fucking gay!”

“Oh,” Steve said, because that was a different story. Except… He shook his head. “No, you can’t be gay. I saw you and Nancy together. You are head over heels for her.”

“What if I was just kidding myself? What if I just latched onto her because of what we went through together?” He looked down at his hands. “I can’t in good conscience stay with her if I’m … gay.”

Steve wanted to tell Jonathan about Robin, but he also knew that she didn’t want him telling other people. So he had to find some other way of convincing Jonathan he was being an idiot. Then the idea came to him. “Here, I’ll prove you’re not gay.”

Jonathan frowned at him. “How?”

“Just… don’t punch me, okay?” Steve insisted, standing up and reaching over the table. He grabbed Jonathan’s head, holding him still, and kissed him.

At first, it was just a press of Steve’s lips against Jonathan’s closed mouth, and Steve figured a middle-school kiss wouldn’t be very enlightening. So he deepened the kiss, moving his lips against Jonathan’s and then giving him the slightest bit of tongue.

Jonathan breathed in sharply through his nose, and Steve figured that’s when he would get pushed away and Jonathan would finally admit to being an idiot. Except Jonathan didn’t push Steve away. He started kissing back.

Jonathan pushed his hands into Steve’s hair and held him close and licked Steve’s tongue, and holy shit! Steve’s heartbeat pounded in his ears and he couldn’t breathe and Jesus Christ, his cock started to harden too! 

Steve broke the kiss, panting and looking at Jonathan and noticing the way his pupils were blown wide and his lips were red and shiny, and his hands were still in Steve’s fucking hair. 

Jonathan pulled him back in and Steve went with it, kissing Jonathan and stepping around the table so he could get close to Jonathan and press his aching dick against another person for the first time in over a year. The feeling of it coursed through Steve’s body, making him stupid and desperate. Jonathan stumbled back, hitting the wall behind him, and Steve followed. He pulled at Jonathan’s lips and licked into his mouth and grabbed his ass, grinding against his hip. And then he felt Jonathan’s hard on pressing into his belly and his stupid instincts decided it would be better to grind against that. 

Jonathan made a low sound in his throat and tugged at Steve’s hair, and holy hell, Steve needed to get off so bad! He’d just had the thought wondering if Jonathan would be down to get fucked, when he finally came to his senses. 

Barely able to catch his breath and so hard it _hurt_ , Steve ripped himself away from Jonathan, stumbling across the room until he was all the way on the other side of the kitchen. He held onto the counter, not trusting his legs to keep him upright. “Holy shit, Jonathan!” Steve cried. “I think you’re gay!”

Jonathan swallowed audibly, and then said, “What does that make _you_?”

“Extremely confused!” Steve cried, laughing a little at how bizarre the situation was. He’d just made out with his ex’s ex, and just about came in his pants because of it. “Holy shit!”

Jonathan laughed a couple times, too, before sliding down the wall and sinking down to the floor. 

Deciding his legs were too shaky to hold him up properly, Steve sat down on the floor too. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back against the kitchen cabinet, trying to calm down. Was he gay now? Was that why he hadn’t been able to date anyone after Nancy? 

He thought about Nancy, about how it had felt to kiss her, and run his hands over her body and nuzzle at her breasts and eat her out. His hard dick twitched at that thought, which couldn’t mean he was gay, right? 

“I still like girls,” he insisted, looking across the room at Jonathan. “What about you?”

“I…” Jonathan put his hands in his hair. 

“Your favorite thing about fucking Nancy? What was it? Quick,” Steve insisted, gesturing for Jonathan to respond. “Say something!”

“I don’t know!” Jonathan insisted. “I guess, the noises she made.”

Steve shivered, remembering the noises Jonathan was talking about. They were always breathy and high-pitched little whines. “She makes really girly noises,” Steve pointed out.

Jonathan groaned. “Why are we talking about this?”

“Look, I have a friend who’s gay, okay?” Steve admitted. Still wanting to protect Robin’s identity, he changed the pronouns around when he said, “And he’s never even had a _crush_ on a girl.”

“What’s your point?” Jonathan said, and he sounded tired.

Steve explained, “If you liked the girly things about Nancy, you’re not gay.”

Jonathan sighed, meeting Steve’s eyes across the kitchen. “Then what am I?”

“I don’t know,” Steve shrugged. “Horny? Lonely?”

With a mean little smirk, Jonathan asked, “Is that what you are?”

Steve couldn’t help but laugh and nod. “Yeah. No doubt about it.”

Sighing again, Jonathan said, “You think if I call Nancy tonight, she’ll take me back?”

“Definitely,” Steve insisted with a nod. “Just…” He felt his face go a little hot. “Don’t mention making out with someone else. It didn’t happen, okay?”

“You’re not gonna tell anyone, are you?” Jonathan asked warily.

Steve shook his head. “Never.”

Smirking again, Jonathan asked, “Not exactly your proudest moment?”

“Are you making fun of me, asshole?” Steve asked, taking the balled-up gas receipt out of his coat pocket and tossing it at Jonathan's head.

Jonathan caught it and tossed it back. "Wait, I talked to Nancy just yesterday. Did you drive through the night to get here?"

"I was pissed off," Steve explained with a shrug. "Sometimes I do stupid stuff when I'm angry."

Jonathan gave Steve a long look, before saying, "You still care about her."

"Duh." Steve let his head fall back against the cabinet behind him and closed his eyes.

“Do you wanna, like…” Jonathan said, and Steve braced himself for something as disarming and strange as the past ten minutes had been. But Jonathan just finished by saying, “Crash on the couch for a few hours before you drive back?”

Steve opened one of his eyes and looked over at Jonathan, who was looking at his hands, almost nervously. “Yeah, sure,” Steve told him. “Thanks.”

“Whatever.”

~*~

Nancy took a deep breath and went into the video store for the second time in two days. She’d practiced what she was going to say several times since she’d made the decision, and now it was time to say them out loud. 

Except Steve wasn’t behind the counter. Nancy went up and said, “Hi, Robin. Is he here?”

Robin blinked at Nancy a few times before saying, “He’s out sick today.”

“Oh,” Nancy said as the phone started ringing. Robin answered it, so Nancy softly said, “Thanks, anyway,” and turned to leave. 

“Nancy, it’s for you,” Robin said, which prompted Nancy to turn around. 

“For me?”

Robin nodded.

Skeptical that this wasn’t a prank or something, Nancy took the phone and said, “Hello?”

“Hi, Nancy. It’s me. I mean, it’s Jonathan.”

Nancy’s heart hurt just hearing his voice. “What are you…? How did you know to call me here?”

“I called the house,” Jonathan explained. “Your mom told me where you’d be.”

In more pain than she was comfortable with, Nancy asked, “Well, what do you want?”

There was a little scuffle on the other end of the line, and then Jonathan said, “I was an idiot. I thought it was too hard being apart, but being broken up is even worse. I don’t want to be broken up. I never did. I love you, Nancy.”

“If you love me,” Nancy said, more furious now than hurt, “how could you put me through that? How could you doubt our relationship that much?”

“Like–like I said,” he insisted. “I was being an idiot. I don’t know how to do this.”

“Well, that’s obvious,” she said with a scoff. 

Jonathan sighed. “Nancy, will you tell me what you’re thinking? Can we get back together?”

“I’m too mad at you to get back together,” Nancy insisted, her free hand clenched in a fist. “God, I just want to kill you for putting me through that, Jonathan! I was devastated!”

“Because you love me,” he said.

“Yeah, well, I _did_ ,” Nancy found herself saying. She knew she felt strongly about Jonathan, but whether that emotion was love or hate, it was difficult to tell at the moment. “I don’t want to be in a relationship with someone who hurts me when things get a little too hard. God, Jonathan. I thought you were better than that.”

His voice was thick when he said, “I thought I was too.”

Nancy really didn’t deserve being treated like this. She was better than this, and maybe long distance _was_ too hard. Maybe they just weren’t as meant to be as she thought they were. “I can’t get back together with you,” she said, knowing in her heart she meant it. “Not now.”

“When?” Jonathan asked. 

“I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.” She wrapped her free arm around herself and said, “I’ll call you if I figure it out.”

“If?” he asked, a little bit of panic in his voice. “Nancy, what do you mean by _if_?”

“Goodbye, Jonathan,” Nancy said, turning back toward the rental counter and slamming the phone back into its base. 

Robin was openly gaping at Nancy.

“Sorry about that,” Nancy said, suddenly feeling embarrassed. “I shouldn’t have had that conversation here.”

“I’ve never seen something so brutal in my entire life,” Robin said, but a smile grew on her face as she said it.

Smiling back carefully, Nancy asked, “Yeah?”

“Yeah!” Robin said with a laugh. “You totally ripped his balls off and fed them to him!”

Nancy winced at the imagery, but she laughed too. God, the break up still hurt like nothing else, but at least Nancy felt like she had some of her pride back. Some of her dignity. 

She’d probably decide tomorrow to call Jonathan and take him back. Maybe she’d make him wait until Saturday if she was still really angry.

“I guess…” Nancy said, thinking about her original reason for coming here. She wasn’t feeling nearly as antisocial anymore. It would be good to spend some time it’s people who weren’t Jonathan. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. If Steve is recovered enough to host a movie night.”

“Oh, I have a feeling he will be,” Robin told her, with a grin that made Nancy’s cheeks warm. “See you then!”

~*~

Jonathan hung up the phone in what felt like slow motion. How? How could he have done this to himself? How could he have been so _stupid_?

“What happened?” Steve asked from across the room, still laying on the couch where he’d slept half the day.

“She doesn’t want to get back together,” Jonathan said, his chest clenching painfully as he rocked forward in the easy chair next to the phone. A few tears ran down his face. “She doesn’t… Oh, my god. I fucked up so bad!” He gave Steve a horrified look. “What am I gonna do?”

Steve shrugged. “What can you do? Can’t force someone to be in a relationship with you.”

“She said she _did_ love me,” he realized, wiping away a few more tears. “Past-tense. Oh, my god!”

With a sigh, Steve got up from the couch and said, “Yeah, I’ve been there, buddy. Sucks, doesn’t it?”

Jonathan let his face fall into his hands. “I ruined everything!”

“It’ll be okay,” Steve insisted, walking over from the other side of the room and putting a hand on Jonathan’s shoulder. “I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but life goes on. You’ll be okay.”

“How do you know?” Jonathan spat, too proud not to be embarrassed about crying in front of Steve Harrington. “A whole year later, and you’re not over her yet. Is it going to take _me_ that long, too? Is it going to hurt _this much_ that whole time?”

“No,” Steve insisted. “It gets a lot better after the first week or two.” He crouched down in front of Jonathan. “Hey, it comes and goes, alright? And yeah, maybe I’m still kind of stuck on Nancy, but I made a great friend this year. That’s not nothing, Jonathan. You should try to make some new friends, too.”

Jonathan scoffed. “Yeah, because I’m _so_ good at that.”

“Or, hell, I don’t know,” Steve muttered. “Go try dating someone else. Get her out of your system. God knows _I’ve_ been trying to do just that. Haven’t exactly been successful in Hawkins, but there have to be lots of girls you could date here.” He gave Jonathan an assessing look. “Or guys. Whoever you had that dream about.”

Jonathan felt his face go red. The thing was that the guy in Jonathan’s dream had been a sort of faceless non-person. But he’d definitely been a guy. There was no way Jonathan would have been able to miss _that_.

“You’ve been trying to get Nancy out of your system?” Jonathan asked, really looking at Steve for a long moment. He tried not to remember what it felt like to kiss Steve, or press against him. He failed. 

“Yeah,” Steve said, and his expression was soft, and kind. 

Jonathan liked kind. 

Nancy didn't love him anymore. The thought hurt, but it also made him angry. Yeah, he'd hurt her by breaking up, but he'd been trying to do the right thing. How could she not recognize that? How could she just _stop_ loving him? Or even if she hadn't stopped loving him, how could she _say_ that she did?

Maybe she'd never loved Jonathan as much as he loved her.

That thought hurt worse than any of the others. The pain made Jonathan want to yell and scream, made Jonathan want to hit something, made Jonathan want to get back at her somehow. He looked at Steve again, and suddenly the idea was in Jonathan's head and wouldn't leave. If Nancy found out, would she even care? Would it hurt her? Or would Jonathan just be doing it to make himself feel better?

EIther way, Jonathan leaned forward and kissed Steve again. Steve didn’t back away. 

He kissed back. 

Jonathan felt desperate to go through with this crazy, stupid idea of his, so he slid off his chair until he was kneeling too, wrapping his arms around Steve and pressing against him and licking into his mouth. 

Fuck, he was so hard already. _Horny and lonely._

Breaking the kiss and panting, Steve asked, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

Jonathan felt desperate to feel anything other than heartbreak, so, “Yeah. Yeah, I want to.” He pressed his lips to Steve’s neck, breathing in and wondering when the hell Steve Harrington started smelling this good. Jonathan pressed his hard cock against Steve’s thigh, easing some of the aching want, and asked, “Do you?”

“Not, ah!” Steve cried out, his fingertips digging into the skin of Jonathan’s shoulder, his cock pressed hard against Jonathan’s belly. “Not in the middle of your mom’s living room.”

Jonathan groaned, but he got to his feet, dragging Steve along with him back to his bedroom. As soon as the door was closed behind them, Steve pressed Jonathan up against it, kissing him again and slipping a thigh between his legs, giving Jonathan the perfect surface to grind against. 

Jonathan missed touching skin, so he pulled on Steve’s sweatshirt until he took it off, and then they were both getting naked and falling into bed and kissing and moving against each other. It was weird, and different, but so goddamn good at the same time. Eventually, Jonathan ended up on his back, Steve on top of him, thrusting his cock against Jonathan’s. 

“Oh, shit,” Jonathan gasped as the almost-slick friction against his cock made his back arch and his toes curl. “Oh, don’t stop. Don’t stop! Oh, god!”

“Yeah, that’s it, baby,” Steve murmured, dipping down far enough to kiss Jonathan again. 

Jonathan thought for sure he’d be the one coming first, but Steve groaned deep and low, his thrusts stopping as his cock pulsed against Jonathan’s and flooded the space between their bodies with come. 

Between the slippery-slick feeling and the bitter smell, and the realization that Steve had just come _on him_ , and _because of_ him, Jonathan got so close. He grabbed Steve’s hips and thrust up against him a couple times, and then he was coming too, his body flooding with pleasure. “Ah!”

Steve dropped off to the side, breathing hard, his hair wrecked and his lips red. Jonathan’s heart clenched at the sight, because he realized how beautiful he found it. How attracted he was to Steve. 

He stared up at the ceiling of his new room and came to the conclusion that maybe he wasn’t gay, but he wasn’t straight, either. Jonathan looked at Steve, all sex-drunk and sleepy with heavy eyelids and flushed skin and he knew he was capable of falling for Steve the same way he’d fallen for Nancy. 

God, he still missed Nancy, so fucking badly. “It didn’t work,” Jonathan said, laying on his back in bed and staring up at the ceiling. Another tear rolled back toward his temple and fell next to his ear. “She’s still in my head.”

“Mm-hmm,” Steve replied, his eyes closed and his breaths growing more and more shallow. 

And then Jonathan realized that if he let Steve fall asleep in his bed, he’d have to explain his presence there to his mother. 

At least if Steve was dressed and out on the couch, there was some plausible deniability. Out on the couch, Steve was just a friend. 

Here in Jonathan’s bed, he was something else entirely.

Jonathan got them cleaned up, got Steve stuffed back into his clothes, and walked him half-asleep back to the couch, where he fell asleep again almost instantly. Jonathan was back in his room and doing his homework at his desk by the time his mom got home with Will and El.

“Jonathan?” Joyce said when she stuck her head in his room. “Why is Steve Harrington sleeping on my couch?”

“He got bored or something in Hawkins,” Jonathan said, keeping his eyes on his work so she wouldn’t see him lying. “I guess he drove up here because he didn’t have anything better to do.”

“And how are you feeling?” she asked, stepping in closer and putting her hand on Jonathan’s forehead. Suddenly he wished he’d taken a shower. "Any better than this morning?"

“A little better,” he admitted, trying very hard not to acknowledge that the orgasm he’d just had might have done a little something to elevate his mood. “I should really finish this, so I don’t fall behind.”

“Okay,” Joyce said, pressing a kiss to the top of Jonathan’s head. “I’ll get dinner started.”

~*~

Robin was waiting outside her house when Steve pulled up. She jumped up and got into his car, saying, "Hey. How did it go?"

Steve gave her this unusual side-long look as he backed out of the driveway and headed toward his house. "Something weird happened," he told her, giving Robin another glance, his eyes kind of wide, or maybe guilty looking.

"Weird?" Robin repeated, leaning closer to get a better look at Steve's face as he drove. "It doesn't look like he hit you. Unless he got you in the ribs or something." Robin grabbed the bottom of Steve's jacket, lifting it up.

"Hey!" Steve said, slapping at Robin's hands until she let go of his jacket. "We didn't fight."

"Well, you got Jonathan to call Nancy, anyway," Robin pointed out. "It's not your fault she decided to destroy him."

"I only heard his half of the conversation," Steve told her. "Was it bad? Was she mean?"

Robin laughed. "I wouldn't say _mean_ , exactly. More like ruthless. It was awesome."

"Not for him!" Steve insisted, and did he actually sound offended on Jonathan's behalf.

Steve's reaction didn't make any sense. "Isn't it a good thing that Nancy isn't getting back together with Jonathan? It means you've got a shot with her."

"I _really_ don't think I do." Steve turned the car into his neighborhood. "Especially not if she finds out what I did."

Frowning, Robin asked, "What did you do? It's not like you murdered Jonathan or anything."

Steve murmured something, but between the stereo and the noise of the road under the tires, Robin didn't understand him.

"What did you say?" she demanded, pushing his shoulder a little when he didn't tell her right away. "Steve, what did you say?"

"I said, I fucked him," Steve cried, throwing up both his hands before putting one back on the steering wheel. "Okay? Are you happy now?"

Robin was stunned into silence for a good ten seconds. Steve. Steve "The Hair" Harrington. Had fucked a guy? "You fucked a _guy_? But… but… you're…" Robin had no idea what to say, because Steve had been her _straight_ friend. And now he wasn't? She settled on asking him, " _Why_?"

"I don't know!" Steve insisted. "He was all sad and lonely and he wanted to, and…" Steve made a frustrated noise. "Jesus, I can't believe I did that!"

She watched Steve's face closely as he pulled up in front of his parents' house and killed the engine. He was blushing really bad, and he looked confused, and frustrated, and maybe a little scared. But he didn't look disgusted, which Robin found more than a little interesting. "Did you enjoy it?"

The blush on Steve's face got even deeper.

"Oh, my god. You did!" Robin had to run to keep up with Steve when he got out of the car and took the front steps in one big step. She managed to prevent him from locking her out of the house, but only just. 

Once the door was closed, Steve admitted, "Yes, okay? I don't know what the fuck it means, but yes. I…" Steve shivered. "It was good."

"Hey," she told Steve, grabbing his face and making him look at her. "It's only fucked up because he's your ex's ex. Not because he's a guy, okay? It's okay that you slept with a guy."

Steve looked into her face for a long second before nodding. "Okay. Thanks, Robin."

"So," Robin said, leading him into the living room and sitting him down on the couch. "Dish. Was it a one-time thing, or are you guys, like, dating now?"

"I…" Steve looked down at his hands. "I left without saying goodbye this morning."

Robin reached over and smacked Steve upside the head. "Right after he'd been dumped by his girlfriend? I can't believe you! You're such a douchebag!"

Steve put his face into his hands. "I know, I know. I'm a horrible person."

"Do you have his number?" Robin asked, rubbing Steve's back. "I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt to apologize."

Looking at his watch, Steve said, "Nancy's going to be here any minute."

"Go call him from your room," Robin suggested. "I'll answer the door."

"Or, I could just not call him…" Steve gave Robin a hopeful look.

"Or I could kick your ass," Robin replied, grabbing Steve's ear and pulling it until he slapped at her hands.

"Okay, okay! Jesus!" Steve said, standing up. "I'll call him!"

While Steve went upstairs, Robin pulled the tapes out of her backpack and set them on the coffee table. Then, she went to the kitchen and found the microwave popcorn. She'd just put the bag in and hit start when the doorbell rang.

Robin went over and pulled open the door, revealing Nancy standing there, looking off to the side and pulling on her lower lip. Her hair was loose, almost to her shoulders, and her turtleneck was the exact right shade to make her skin look like it was glowing. 

Jesus Christ, Robin suddenly understood how this girl could have so thoroughly messed up two stupid boys. Unwelcome butterflies in her stomach, Robin said, "Hey, Nancy. Come on in."

Nancy dropped her hands away from her face and gave Robin a self-conscious sort of smile that did nothing to calm the butterflies in Robin's stomach. "Thanks," she said, passing Robin to get into the foyer. God, she smelled like raspberries or something. It made Robin's mouth water. "Are you sure it's okay for me to hang out with you guys? I know Steve said you're not dating, but…"

"I'm gay," Robin blurted out, completely out of the blue. God, what was she _doing_? She was sure there were worse people to come out to than Nancy Wheeler, but it should have been a planned thing! Not a spur-of-the-moment confession. What? Was she thinking Nancy would automatically return Robin's crush after finding out? That it was that easy? Oh, god. Was it too late to take that back?

Nancy's mouth formed an O shape for a few seconds before she nodded and said, "Oh. Okay. That, um, explains it."

"Sorry," Robin said, looking down at the floor and silently willing it to swallow her up. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything. Just… that's why Steve and I are just friends."

"And he…" Nancy looked further into the house. Lowering her voice to a whisper, Nancy asked, "He knows?"

"Yeah," Robin told her. "Yeah, he knows. He's been really cool about it."

Nancy looked a little surprised, or impressed or something.

Deciding to blow right past that, Robin went for the living room. "I brought a couple movies from the store. Do you want to help me pick out what we'll watch first?"

"Sure," Nancy said, taking off her coat as she followed Robin. "Where is Steve?"

"He had to make a phone call about something," Robin told her, very carefully stomping down on the urge to blurt out any more secrets in some sort of misguided attempt to make Nancy like her. "He'll be down in a minute."

~*~

Steve took a deep breath and forced himself to punch in Jonathan's new number. It rang a few times and Steve almost hung up, but then someone answered, "Hello?"

It sounded like Mrs. Byers, so Steve said, "Uh, hi. Can I talk to Jonathan?"

"Steve? Is that you, honey?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah," he told her. "Um, thanks for letting me crash yesterday."

"Where did you go this morning? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Steve told her, a little surprised that she sounded worried about him. "I had to get back. It's a long drive."

She made a hum of acknowledgement, "Well, I hope your trip was what you needed it to be."

 _I kind of did need to get laid_ , Steve thought, pressing his hand to his mouth so he wouldn't say something stupid to her. "Sure. So, is Jonathan home, or…?"

"Yeah, just a minute."

Steve almost hung up the phone while he was waiting, but he didn't want Robin to try to beat him up again, so he stayed on the line. 

When Jonathan said, "Steve?" he sounded more confused than mad, so Steve figured that was a good sign.

"Uh, hey," Steve said, realizing he didn't actually have a plan for what he was going to say. "I just wanted to, um, apologize. You know, for leaving so early this morning."

"No, it's okay," Jonathan said. "I get it."

Jonathan expected him to be gone in the morning, didn't he? And Steve had lived right up to those bad expectations. Like always.

He was exactly the sort of loser his asshole dad always said he was.

"No, it was a shitty thing for me to do. I just…" Steve sighed again, pressing his fist against his right eye. "Are you okay? How are you doing?"

"Well, you know," Jonathan said, "I've had better weeks."

"Yeah."

"I've also had worse."

There was something about the tone in Jonathan's voice that made Steve's chest feel a little warm. "So, last night," Steve couldn't help but ask, "did that make your week worse or better?"

He heard a little huff of breath that might have been a laugh, and suddenly Steve wished he could see Jonathan's face. And then he said, "Better," and it was like a rocket carrying his heart up into space.

"Yeah?" Steve asked, a smile on his face. "Well, I'm glad I could help."

Jonathan scoffed. "Like you got nothing out of it."

"Oh, I did," Steve insisted, keeping his voice low. "I definitely got _a lot_ out of it. Like, if it was up to me…" Steve shut his lips tightly before he gave up too much.

"What?" Jonathan asked, and now it sounded like he was smiling too. "Steve?"

His chest tight, Steve admitted, "I wouldn't mind it happening again. You know, if--if you wanted that too."

Jonathan's sharp breath said more than words would have.

"Yeah," Steve said in understanding.

After clearing his throat, Jonathan said, "If Nancy wants to get back together, though…"

"Oh, totally," Steve insisted. "And, like, same here. If she asks me out, which I know she isn't going to, but still. If she does, consider yourself dumped, babe."

"Can I…?" Jonathan asked, but he stopped himself halfway through the question and didn't finish.

"Can you what?" Steve asked, before barreling right over whatever Jonathan intended. "Ask me to drive back up in a couple weeks? Yeah, I could do that. You know, so you don't get stupid again."

"No, Steve," Jonathan said with an actual laugh. "I was gonna ask, could I call you sometime?"

Shrugging, Steve said, "Yeah, sure. I mostly work in the evenings, but we close early on Sunday, and I don't work Thursdays either."

"Okay," Jonathan said. "I'll talk to you later."

"Later," Steve agreed.

Only after he hung up did he realize that he was going to have to go downstairs and face Nancy with the knowledge that he was kind of, maybe, dating her boyfriend. Well, her recently-exed ex-boyfriend, anyway. Not that he needed to tell Nancy any of that. Nah, it wasn't any of her business.

When he got downstairs, Nancy and Robin were both sitting on the couch, sharing a bowl of popcorn. They were already watching a movie Steve only recognized because Robin had shoved the box in his face about ten times before putting it up on the TVs at work and forcing him to watch it.

At least it was something he'd already seen.

He said, "Hey, Nancy," and when she looked up at him, she was sucking the butter and salt from her thumb, and just like that, Steve was back to realizing how deeply in love with her he still was. Jesus, just sitting in the same room with her was going to suck so much. Unless, of course, there was alcohol involved.

Steve popped open his parents' liquor cabinet, pulled out the almost-full bottle of rum, and went to the kitchen to get glasses and a few cans of coke. "Anyone else want a drink?" he asked when he sat down at the end of the couch, sort of on Robin's feet until she pulled them out from under him.

"Oh, me," Robin said, making grabby hands at him until he mixed the rum and coke in one of the glasses and handed it to her. 

"Nancy? You want just coke, or…?"

"I think this week calls for the good stuff," she said with a sigh, holding out her hand until Steve mixed her a drink and handed it over. 

He made his a double, and by the time the movie was over, he'd finished two more and was feeling pleasantly buzzed. "I know I've seen that movie before," he told Robin, "but I still have no idea what was going on."

"We should do something else," Nancy insisted, taking the bottle of rum and pouring herself a new drink. "Like, play a game."

"I think there's a copy of Uno around here somewhere," Steve said, looking under the couch pillow before realizing that was a dumb place to look. The cards were probably in the little basket his mom kept under the coffee table. 

Robin shook Steve by the arm and said excitedly, "Oooh, what about Never Have I Ever?"

"Well, sure," he said, giving Nancy a look. "If you're looking to get hammered on a school night."

"No school tomorrow," Nancy told him with a sneaky little smile. "It's a teacher day or something."

Smiling at her, Steve leaned back on the couch and said, "Well, that's a different story." He lifted his drink to Nancy and asked, "Do you want to go first?"

That same evil smile on her face, Nancy said, "Never have I ever gotten carsick on the bus."

"I told you that in confidence," Steve insisted, taking a drink and noticing that Robin drank too. "You got sick on the bus?"

Nodding, Robin told them, "It was the bus back from an away game with the marching band. Dark night, lots of ice. Got sick in my uniform hat."

Steve laughed, and so did Nancy, her smile so bright that it made Steve's chest hurt. Wanting to get back at her for making him drink, Steve said, "Never have I ever gotten an A-plus on one of Kaminski's tests."

Nancy narrowed her eyes at Steve, but she was still smiling, and when she finished drinking, her lips were wet and so damn inviting. 

Robin drank too. "Okay, that's two for two when it comes to me," she insisted. "How am I going to get back at you guys?" She looked at Steve, then over at Nancy. She was still looking at Nancy when she said, "Never have I ever had sex with a guy."

Nancy drank. Steve, his stomach down in his shoes, said, "God damn it, Robin," and drank as well.

Robin whipped around, her eyes wide and following Steve's glass as he took it away from his lips. "Oh my god, Steve. I'm so sorry. I forgot!"

"Wait," Nancy said, looking between Steve's resigned expression and Robin's mortified one. "When did this happen?"

"Sometime between when you broke up with me and now," Steve told her. Narrowing his eyes at Robin, he said, "Never have I ever played the trumpet."

Robin was the only one to drink.

"Nance, it's your turn," Steve said, hoping she would let the whole issue drop. 

Except she didn't. "Steve," she said softly. "Are you…? Is that why you and Robin are friends?"

"No," he told her, looking at Robin and asking her with his face if Nancy knew about her being gay. Robin nodded. Looking back to Nancy, Steve told her, "I'm not… I don't…" He was about to say it was a one time thing, but thinking about the call he'd just had with Jonathan, he wasn't sure that was exactly true either. Eventually, Steve admitted, "I don't know what the hell I am."

Robin leaned her head against Steve's shoulder and looked up at him with big puppy-dog eyes, and somehow it was the exact right thing to do to get Steve to laugh.

"Never have I ever had a crush on a girl," Robin said with a smile, taking a drink.

Obviously Steve drank, but over his glass, Steve saw Nancy taking a drink too. He choked, some of the rum and coke going up his nose. When he was done coughing, Steve asked, "What the hell, Nancy? You've never had a crush on a girl."

"Not that I ever told you about," she said with a little smile. Steve could practically feel Robin vibrating with excitement next to him. 

“Who did you have a crush on?” Steve asked, suddenly desperately wanting to know.

Blushing, Nancy said, "No! You're going to make fun of me!"

"It can't be any worse than the girl Robin used to have a crush on in tenth grade," Steve said, laughing and ducking when Robin tried to smack him. In a high voice, he teased Robin, "Oh, Tammy Thompson, you're so beautiful! I love you even though you sing like a dying cow!"

"She does _not_!" Robin cried, but she was laughing as she tried to hit Steve again. When Robin fell over on him, Steve caught her and pulled her into a hug, laughing and squeezing her until Robin squealed. "Let go!"

Steve let her fall off the couch and onto the floor, knowing she would come back up giggling, which she did. Stealing a glance over at Nancy, Steve thought she looked a little wistful. Damn. She was probably thinking about Jonathan again. Wanting to keep her having fun and in the moment, Steve nudged Nancy with his foot. "C'mon, Nance! Who did you have a crush on? We won't tell anyone."

"We won't," Robin insisted, laying her head on Steve's leg as she looked over at Nancy. "We're good at keeping secrets."

"Not so good at being straight, though," Steve found himself saying. He almost regretted it, except for the way Robin turned and looked at him with the most delighted expression he'd ever seen on her face.

"Oh, my god!" Robin cried, giggling as she turned back to Steve. "Yeah, what he said."

Nancy was smiling, and not blushing as bad as before. Still, she looked down at her drink bashfully, running her finger along the rim as she confessed, "Annabel Kingston."

"Who?" Robin asked, but Steve knew exactly who Nancy was talking about.

He told Robin, "She was in the class ahead of us at school. She grew up in France or something. Had this sexy accent."

"Ohhh, I remember now," Robin said with a little laugh. "Her accent was fake."

"What?" Nancy demanded, looking more than a little devastated. "Fake?"

Robin nodded. "Yeah. It was all over the place. Sometimes it was French, other days it was more Germanic." She gave Steve a confused look. "Is this one of those things that no one else notices?"

"Totally," Steve told her, before telling Nancy, "Robin has the best ears. She can speak, like, eight different languages."

"Four," Robin corrected, reaching for her drink from the coffee table. "And a half, if you count all the Russian I learned over summer."

Nancy gave her an impressed sort of look. Yeah, Steve was just realizing now how lucky he was to have been with Nancy for almost a year. She was way out of his league, honestly. She deserved someone as impressive as she was. Someone really smart and accomplished. Not a loser like him.

The thought must have shown on his face, because Robin cooed at him, saying, "Stevie, no! We're having fun! You can't be sad!" Robin put her hands on either side of his face, squishing his cheeks until he couldn't help but laugh.

Nancy laughed, too, and it was a good sound to hear. 

When Robin let go of his face, Steve asked her, "You know what we need now? A funny movie. Did you bring anything good?"

She scoffed at him. "Of course I did! How dare you doubt me, Harrington? How dare you!" Her imperious tone dissolved into giggles and then she dumped a pile of tapes on his lap. "You guys pick, I gotta pee."

After Robin left the room, Nancy shifted closer and leaned her head on Steve's shoulder. "Thank you for this," she said. "Robin is really great. I can see why you're friends with her."

"Yeah," Steve said, trying not to notice the smell of Nancy's shampoo, or the still-present way his fingers itched to touch her, or the compulsion to confess to her that he'd slept with her boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. Whatever. "Yeah, she's great. Which one of these do you want to watch, Nance?"

"This one," she said, her fingers brushing his as she took it out of his hand and stood up, taking it over to the VCR.

Steve had never, in his entire life, felt this confused.

~*~

Jonathan sat, staring at the phone. It had been a week since Nancy said she had to think about getting back together with him. A week, and she still hadn’t called. _Steve_ had called three times, but Nancy hadn’t. 

God, why did he have to be so fucking _stupid_?

Will came into the living room and sat down next to Jonathan with a heavy sigh. “She still hasn’t called?”

Jonathan shook his head.

“Not to be, like, selfish or anything, but what does this mean about our trip to Hawkins over Christmas break?” Will asked. 

“I don’t know,” Jonathan told him, putting his head in his hands. 

After a moment, Will said, “We wouldn’t have to stay at Mike’s house. We could probably stay with Dustin or something.”

Jonathan groaned. Whenever he’d picked Will up from Dustin’s house, Mrs. Henderson had always pinched his cheeks and given him more compliments than he was comfortable with.

Then he realized something. Jonathan picked up the phone and dialed the number he’d memorized over the course of the week. Not that he’d memorized it on purpose. He’d just looked at the number he’d scrawled on a piece of notebook paper and kept on his nightstand more often than he cared to admit.

After a couple rings, a woman’s voice answered, “Harrington residence.”

“Hi, Mrs. Harrington.” Ignoring the way Will made a questioning noise and smacked his arm, Jonathan continued, “May I please speak with Steve?”

“I’ll see if I can find him. Whom may I say is calling?”

“Oh, um, Jonathan, ma’am. Jonathan Byers,” he said, feeling stupid and tongue-tied. 

Will hissed, “What are you doing?”

Jonathan turned to him and shrugged. “You have any better ideas?”

“Yeah, a motel,” Will said. “You can’t…”

“It’s okay. We’re… friends now,” Jonathan told his brother. “It’s fine. You and El should still stay with the Wheelers.”

Before Will could respond, Jonathan heard distantly, “Okay, Mom! I got it!” Then closer, Steve said, “Hey, Jonathan! How’s it going, man?” Then there was a click on the line and the tone in Steve’s voice _changed_. “Didn’t expect to hear from you today, babe.”

Jesus, the tone and the pet name together were too much. Jonathan covered his face with his free hand as he said, “Yeah, hi. Are you going to be around for Christmas break? Like, are you going anywhere?”

“Nah, I’ll be here.” Steve said. “Why? You coming to town?”

“Yeah. I was supposed to stay with the Wheelers, but…”

“She still hasn’t called?”

Jonathan shook his head. “No.” He took a shaky breath and let it out before taking another one and asking, “Think I could crash at yours? Like, three nights, maybe four?”

“Yeah, you should,” Steve told him. “My parents are going to Vale, so I’ve got the house to myself. We could, I don’t know… Pick up where we left off? If you want?”

Jonathan suddenly wished his brother wasn’t sitting right next to him. “Y-yeah. Yeah, that sounds… Yes.”

“Awesome!” Steve said, and he sounded genuinely excited. 

Maybe Jonathan was starting to feel a little excited about the trip too.

~*~

Eight hours was a lot of time driving, but Will and El kept Jonathan entertained for most of it. He pulled up outside the Wheelers’ house, expecting to have to see Nancy, but if she was there, she didn’t come out of the house. 

Jonathan left once he was sure his siblings were okay, and drove straight over to Steve’s house. He still had no idea what he was doing, but his whole body vibrated with excitement during the drive over. He brought his backpack with him when he left the car, and the front door opened before Jonathan got there. 

“Hey, there he is!” Steve called out, a sunny expression on his face that made Jonathan smile. 

Jonathan said, “Hey,” and followed Steve into the house. 

As Steve closed the door, he asked, “So, are you hungry? I can’t cook, but we could order a p–”

Steve got cut off when Jonathan couldn’t help himself anymore and pulled him into a kiss. It was just as great as that one they’d had in his mother’s new kitchen, and Jonathan felt grateful that it hadn’t been just a one-time thing.

“Fuck,” Steve murmured when Jonathan pulled back to set down his backpack and catch his breath. His hands tugging at the hem of Jonathan’s coat, he asked, “D’you want anything to eat? Or we could go upstairs?”

Feeling desperately lonely, Jonathan told Steve, “Upstairs.”

Steve nodded and pressed close for another kiss, his hands and his lips so warm that Jonathan ached to have them on him, anywhere. Everywhere. 

When Steve backed toward the stairs, he held Jonathan’s head close with one hand and fumbled with the zipper on Jonathan’s coat. Jonathan helped him with it, jerking down the zipper and letting Steve push it off his shoulders. They left the coat somewhere on the stairs, and by the time they reached Steve’s room, Jonathan had lost his sweater too, and had Steve halfway out of his shirt.

It didn’t feel as weird as Jonathan thought it would, getting naked and following Steve under the covers on his bed, pressing close together to fight off the chill of the December air. As Jonathan kissed Steve, licking his tongue as the opportunity presented itself, he told himself to just go for it and let his hands wander like they wanted to.

Jonathan ran his hand up Steve’s arm and through his chest hair and up his neck and cupped his face, all the while pressing his aching dick against Steve’s hip. When he broke away to kiss Steve’s neck, Steve cleared his throat.

“What do you want to do, baby?” Steve asked, his hands clenching at the skin on Jonathan’s back. “I, um… I got some supplies.”

A thrill of excitement shot through Jonathan’s body, making him shiver. Still, Jonathan knew he wasn’t quite ready for that. “Not yet,” he said, thrusting against Steve’s hip. His hand wandered downward, finding and wrapping around Steve’s cock, making him groan. 

Not for the first time in the past few weeks, Jonathan thought about putting his mouth on Steve, making him fall apart kind of like how he used to do with Nancy. His mouth watered. Jonathan broke away from kissing Steve to ask, “Can I go down on you?”

Steve took a sharp breath and his cock twitched in Jonathan’s hand. “Y-yeah. Fuck!”

Jonathan scooted down the bed, pumping Steve’s cock a few more times with his hand, then licking the tip. Steve groaned, pushing his fingers into and through Jonathan’s hair. He wasn’t quite sure what he was doing, but he kind of just did the things Nancy always did to him.

“Oh!” Steve cried out after Jonathan sucked a little harder, tightening his hand in Jonathan’s hair. “Oh, babe! Come on! I’m getting so close!”

Not ready to have to decide whether to spit or swallow, Jonathan gave one last lick and then watched Steve’s face as he finished him off with his hand. Steve groaned as he came, shooting up his belly and chest, Jonathan working him through it. 

It reminded Jonathan of one of the dreams he’d had before breaking up with Nancy. His own cock felt so hard, pressed down against the mattress, that he could barely stand it. He crawled back up the bed, kissing Steve deeply and putting Steve’s hand on his aching cock. “Please,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” Steve whispered back, wrapping his fingers around Jonathan and squeezing as he stroked. 

Jonathan saw stars. He groaned and laid back against Steve’s pillows, accepting Steve’s kisses and focusing on how good Steve’s hand felt. When it left, Jonathan made a noise of protest, which Steve quieted with a couple deep kisses. Jonathan heard the drawer beside the bed open and in a moment, Steve’s hand returned to Jonathan’s cock, wet.

The slick, slippery slide of Steve’s hand setting a quick pace made Jonathan cry out and hold onto Steve tighter. He felt powerless against the onslaught, dizzy and lightheaded. Steve kissed him, licking his tongue, pulling on his lower lip. It only took a few more kisses before Jonathan was crying out and coming, holding onto Steve for dear life as it felt like the whole world fell out from underneath him.

“Oh, god,” he sighed, catching his breath. “Fuck.”

“Yeah,” Steve said, and Jonathan watched as Steve dragged his finger through the come on Jonathan’s stomach and then put it in his mouth.

Jonathan took a quick, surprised breath at the sight.

“Sorry,” Steve said, turning and looking up at the ceiling. “Sorry, that was weird.”

**Author's Note:**

> That's as far as I got! Thanks to those who encouraged me to post this, even though it's unfinished!
> 
> Let me know if you have any suggestions for how to end this fic! I might just be able to do it with the right inspiration!
> 
> If you want to know more about me and my works, you can find me over [on tumblr](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/) and [on pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/pterawaters).


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